A New Lease On Life
To help expand its fleet of aircraft carriers, the Navy could purchase two ships at once. That’s on the table right now.
It could also coax more life from its oldest carrier. That’s also under consideration, thanks to the House-passed 2019 defense spending blueprint.
A provision in the House’s 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) directs the Navy to consider extending the service life of the USS Nimitz, built at Newport News Shipbuilding and commissioned in 1975.
It tells Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer to brief the House Armed Services Committee no later than March 1, 2019, “on options that exist to extend the service life of USS Nimitz, to include the extension of major components,” according to the bill’s text. “Additionally, such a briefing should include cost estimates and major modernization components.”
credit: US Defense Today